middle east

What did the human-rights-promotion community think about the Cairo speech? According to vanguard organization Human Rights Watch’s official statement, emailed to me at 4:14 p.m. yesterday, not such great things. This release was titled “U.S./Egypt: Obama Dodged Rights Issue: Generalities Failed to Send Tough Message on Mideast Repression.”
President Barack Obama’s speech on June 4, 2009 [...]

I don’t remotely have enough knowledge about the forthcoming Iranian presidential election — and after so many misforecast assessments over so many years, I’m dubious that anyone here in the United States really does — but I would really like every word of this Andrew Sullivan post to be true.
Ahmadinejad has discredited himself in the [...]

Craig Shirley, the Republican political strategist who wrote a fine book about Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign, is probably the most red meat conservative writer for Politico’s “Arena” of short takes on the news. His take on President Obama’s trip to the Middle East:

And now there arose a new Pharaoh, who knew not Reagan.

That’s the [...]

The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency improperly wiretapped a member of Congress who was “part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006.” Greg Sargent wants to know who it was. Don’t we all. To the Googling stations!

At the end of a thoughtful post about National Intelligence Council Chairman Chas Freeman, Ezra Klein observes:
But for Freeman’s detractors, a loss might still be a win. As Sullivan and others have documented, the controversy over Freeman is fundamentally a question of his views on Israel. Barring a bad report from the inspector general, Chas [...]

Over at Democracy Arsenal, Michael Cohen reads a quote from a prospective adviser to President Obama about “achiev[ing] small, concrete outcomes that advance political freedoms in very tangible ways and do[ing] so, without talking about doing so” and observes:
There is simply no better way to undermine US credibility and weaken the country’s moral standing then [...]

Reflecting on today’s New York Times story about how Hezbollah’s youth corps are part of a planned holistic “society of resistance” built by the Shiite Lebanese militant group, Andrew “Abu Muqawama” Exum has a really profound insight:

With Vietnam experience and foreign-policy expertise, the 2004 Democratic nominee would bring strong credentials to any possible Obama administration. His close ties to the Illinois senator, as well as his political skills, are assets. But will Biden stand for it?

Speaking of recognizing that eight years’ worth of foreign policy has ended in total failure, an interesting item comes to me from Rice University.
Edward Djerejian is a longtime diplomat and confidant of James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and consigliere to George H.W. Bush. Djerejian was an outsized figure in GOP foreign-policy [...]

Two experts say time is right for Washington to pursue normal relations with Iran and recognize its legitimate regional and international role. Other leading scholars back this call for detente.